It’s baack, and you’d sooner have a poltergeist than this spirit. I’ve predicted for over 20 years that the Charismatic Movement that disrupted Christendom from circa 1965 – 1980 would be back. It was driven to the Side-Show Bob of Televangelism where it self-destructed in their opulent, decadent, and bizarre lifestyles. Then Joel Osteen picks up the mantle and succeeds by only being Pentecostal in private while preaching the health, wealth, success, and happiness that he has can be yours. But as Paul says, he seeks you only so that you will seek him all the more (Galatians 4: 17).
But I blather. Point of Grace, Pflugerville, Texas will not be Ground Zero for the charismatic possession in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, but it will be involved. Ground Zero could be a Concordia though I don’t think enough Christians are at any of them to start a movement. I think most likely Ground Zero will be the 2025 LCMS youth gathering. It could even happen at Higher Things. Their uncritical use and support of technology leaves them open to the megaphone of social media. The Man Behind the Curtain in Oz came nowhere near amplifying himself the way social media does an individual. I can see a Flash Mob igniting at Higher Things.
A pastor who will be at Ground Zero is Rev. Jake Boessling. He’s the campus pastor at Concordia University Austin. His curriculum vita on the LCMS website identifies him as a 2005 grad of Concordia Irvine with a Master of Theology from Fuller Seminary. (That’s not a Lutheran anything.) He must have somehow colloquized but he definitely took his Pentecostalism with him.
He was preaching at Point of Grace, Pflugerville, Texas on Pentecost 2023. The only thing worse than posing a false dichotomy is to go on to “solve” it. He says, “Which is better? Jesus beside you or the Holy Spirit inside of you. The Holy Spirit inside of you because the Spirit is power.” This is wrong on so many levels it’s embarrassing. He’s emphatic that the answer is the Holy Spirit inside of you. He gives a nod, a somewhat derisive one, to Baptism and Holy Communion, “Yes, the Holy Spirit is here. But you can’t restrain the Holy Spirit. Remember He’s like the wind.” While it’s true that we can’t bind the Holy Spirit, God does bind us to Word and Sacrament. This is a cornerstone of Confessional Lutheranism.
You think I’m overreacting. In his closing prayer, he prays, that is he “asks for”, he “petitions God for” “a movement like at Asbury.” Google Asbury Movement. It took place February 8, 2023 at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky. Some students stayed after chapel to sing and pray. Continuous prayer and song went on for two weeks. Read reports. You’ll see how it was amplified by social media. This is the second “movement” of the Holy Spirit at this location. The first one happened February 3, 1970 and lasted for 185 hours. This college is in the Wesleyan Holiness tradition, i.e. Pentecostal with a bent toward overcoming sin.
I ‘experienced’ the Jesus Freak movement of the 1970’s, Rev. David Wilkerson’s The Cross and The Switchblade, and I was at a Nicky Cruz revival at an inner city church where a spirit certainly moved many people. You just think Concordia University Austin is a big problem now because with Fleetwood Mac they want to go their own way. (In reality, they are simply wishing to do de jure what they have for decades been doing de facto.) You just think the Alt Right and Woke crowd are tearing apart your “beloved Synod”. You just think the liturgical Nazis insisting people must, should, or ought to cross themselves, genuflect here, bow there, and hold their hands just so are needlessly troubling OBS (Our Beloved Synod).
Wait tell spirit-filled people are swaying, praying, lifting up their hands to the Lord, and telling you what the Spirit told them. When this comes to pass, don’t try to quench this spirit (1 Thess. 5:19) because like C-4 you stamp on this flame and it blows up. (For more info on C-4 see: (https://www.pastorharris.com/2011/01/17/stamping-on-c-4/)) Pentecostalism has to burn itself out. And burn it will, but only after many are burnt or burned up.